PenguinSix

Ok, let’s be honest.  You probably don’t like the dance beat or the rock and roll remix, but the video has other reasons to watch.

How random is this?

Ok, way back in law school I was watching MTV Real World London.  There was a scene in the first episode in which there was a song and the only lyrics I could remember, besides the really funky keyboard riff in the background, was the words ‘it’s a popular misconception’.  I thought it might be Blur, or some other UK band of that era, but could never–I mean never get any more information about the song or who did or what.

Tonight while searching for another song (based on only one line of the song) I found a good lyrics search engine and on a lark tried this 14 year quest.  VICTORY!

So I give you Saturn 5 by the band Inspiral Carpets.

Doctor Who live and direct from London via the Slingbox in my UK office.

Wow, it’s been over two months since I made the decision to cut the Comcast cable to the house and just live in an IPTV and ‘Over the Air’ world.  I hooked up Mac Mini’s to each of the TVs (god I wish Apple would really delve into the market of guys who have Mini’s on their TVs instead of the comparatively crippled Apple TV).  I also have an EyeTV attached to one of the Mini’s which is providing me with TIVO like functionality for those channels I get over the air.  

How has it been?  I haven’t even noticed the difference.

Ok, that’s a bit of a stretch, but seriously, I have not missed much.  I have the basic TV and some over the air TV from an antenna.  This is giving me the networks (though not in HD) and some PBS stations.  From Livestation and TVUPlayer I’m getting some live stations, and even some sports (watching cricket the other day–ha).  By far the biggest loss has been CNBC which is not part of the basic package and was nice background noise during the day.  But for news I’m getting by with a wide variety of options, from France24 and AlJazeera English service online, to my link up with the BBC (which is kind of tricky).  

My biggest expense monthly was movies, but between Redbox and Netflix (now streaming live to the TV) I’ve got more content than I know what to do with.  I initially resisted the Netflix, feeling that with shipping times and whatnot I wouldn’t be able to watch more than $9 worth of movies a month vs. the Redbox ($1 or free, if you had a code).  Well that’s not the case.  Netflix has a facility within the 1-day mail delivery to DC so I get films basically overnight from Netflix, and with the streaming option I get a whole catalog of movies (though most are generally B-grade movies, there are a few gems inside).  

I have one negative–too much content.  I mean, I don’t have time to watch everything I would like to watch.  Between podcasts downloaded and shows TIVO’d and movies I can watch on Netflix, I never want for something to watch.  Seriously–there is more than I can handle.

The big test will be football season.  We’ll see how far net streaming of college football has come.

Thus far, I’ve saved over $300 in two months on cable TV and haven’t looked back.  I’ve actually received quite a bit of fan mail from others who have done the same.

If you are looking to do the same, this would be the setup I would recommend:

• Mac Mini (the entry level is fine, you may want to add more memory but your call)
• EyeTV Hybrid (this connects the cable from your antenna or ‘lifeline’ service to the Mac’s USB)
• A DVI cable or a DVI-HDMI cable and convertor to connect to your TV
• A Bluetooth Mouse & Keyboard (honestly, it’s so much easier than using the remote)

Here are the pics from my house on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, about 75 miles from the launch site.

More here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/penguinsix/sets/72157618411162551/

For all the ‘old school’ ravers who passed on the Seattle Grunge sound and went with something a bit more housey.

The Hoegh Traveller is passing by the house at this moment.  Not really sure what is inside.  It’s supposed to be cars, but who is going to buy them?

As I’ve mentioned, the backlog in worldwide shipping is noticeable here on the Bay with dozens of ships parked in the Annapolis anchorage with nothing better to do.  But if you think that’s bad, you should see what is going on in Singapore right now.  Over 700 cargo ships are at anchor with nowhere to go, no cargo to carry.  As the Asian exporters scale back their offerings, these ships that were a lifeblood of international trade now sit idle.

God it would be a great time to buy some ships and start my own shipping company.  Anyone have a few million to spare?

I guess when you are unemployed there really isn’t the need to go anywhere.

Moscow’s chandelier-adorned metro, ranked as one of the world’s busiest, said passenger numbers had fallen by 7 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from the same period last year.

The number of people travelling on the Stalin-era system has fallen by an average of about 700,000 a day in April and May, said Moscow metro chief Dmitry Gayev.

It is a pretty subway system.  The turnstiles however, can kill.  If you mess up pulling your card out of the system expect to be impaled by those things.

The Space Shuttle is going up today, but because it is heading to the Hubble Space Telescope and not toward the International Space Station, some special ‘rescue’ preparations are being made at the Cape.  The Endeavour has been readied and rolled out to launch pad 39b just in case the Atlantis, launching from 39a runs into difficulty.  Because the ISS and Hubble are on vastly different orbits, should a problem arise with Atlantis there is no docking at the Space Station.  Once this mission is completed, and no rescue needed, Endeavour will move to 39a for its mission in November and 39b will begin a rebuilding for the Constellation missions.

Neat pic of both shuttles.

The Swedish Version

The British Remake

You might get that idea in the media.  This month I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which in Swedish was called Men who Hate Women Menn Som Hater Kvinner.  It was about some murders of women…well I won’t spoil the plot other than to say sex and murder had a pretty big role. 

Last night I watched the first episode of Wallander on Masterpiece Mystery.  Wallander cop stories have been a staple of reading in Europe for the last decade, and a Swedish tv version has been around for nearly as long.  The BBC took a shot at making some films and the result was pretty good, though it also dealt with the same weird sex / violent murder that seems to be particularly Swedish this month.

Wallander was pretty good.  I suspect I’ll watch the next few episodes and maybe read a book or two (heck, without cable I don’t have much of a choice besides PBS).  I don’t think I’ll be visiting Ikea anytime soon.  Too much weird Swede stuff this month.

The Spiegel has a nice photo essay on the swearing-in ceremony for the Swiss guards at the Vatican.

Everyone talks the talk about accountability.  I’m looking today at some guy stepping down because Air Force One freaked out a bunch of New Yorkers.  But Gene Kranz is a guy who has walked the walk.  I was doing a bit of Googling tonight came across this quote following the disaster of Apollo 1.  Just a little something while I await the launch of TACSAT 3 over on the other side of the Bay.

Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, ‘Dammit, stop!’ I don’t know what Thompson’s committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.

From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: ‘Tough’ and ‘Competent.’ Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write ‘Tough and Competent’ on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.